High School Football: In brawl-marred game, Wissahickon falls to Cheltenham, 20-6

When Cheltenham star senior Mark Thompson was ejected from the game, junior Mark Heimann was forced to step into a much larger role on the Panthers’ offense.

And he made the most of it.

Heimann ran in a touchdown and threw for another in the first quarter while leading the Panthers to a 20-6 win over visiting Wissahickon in a Suburban One American Conference meeting under lights at Cheltenham High School on Friday night.

Heimann stepped into a quarterback role usually held by Hyneef Dockery and finished with two touchdowns and 110 yards passing, along with 123 yards rushing on only 14 carries.

“I knew that I’d have to be prepared because football is an unpredictable game,” Heimann said. “I just came in prepared and we just got lucky tonight.”

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Cheltenham (5-2, 3-1) got on the board midway through the first quarter when it ran an end-around reverse to Heimann, who took it 15 yards into the end zone on third goal. Wissahickon came back down and scored on a three-yard run by senior Dan Murphy, but the Trojans (4-3, 2-2) missed the extra point attempt and trailed by one.

Later in the quarter, the Panthers got a stroke of luck and found the end zone again, as two Wissahickon defensive backs let a Heimann pass go through their hands and into the possession of Cheltenham’s Dockery, who took the pass 67 yards in for a touchdown.

“They (Cheltenham) outplayed us and it was a hard-fought game on both sides,” Wissahickon coach Jeff Kappa said. “We made some mistakes and we’ll bounce back.”

Cheltenham kicker Remi Wachsmuth kicked a 25-yard field goal in the third quarter and a 27-yarder in the fourth to put Cheltenham up by two touchdowns.

Heimann’s 223 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns led the Panthers, but Ryan Phillips also was able to chip in with 50 yards rushing on 11 carries. Hyneef Dockery caught two passes for 72 yards and a score and also ran for 17 yards. On defense, Jonathan Howard recorded two sacks.

Wissahickon’s offense was led by Dan Murphy, who ran eight times for 62 yards.

Other than a number of penalties by both teams, the game, for the most part, was a friendly contest between the two teams. But during the handshake, an all-out brawl broke out between both teams, putting a damper on yet another home win for Cheltenham.

Several individual fights broke out and the two teams fought back and forth for several minutes until coaches and police were able to break up the teams and allow them to go their separate ways.

Neither coach was available after the game for comment regarding the situation.